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Friday, May 05, 2017

Political shenanigans with greyhound racing

Greyhound racing is withering, with more than two dozen tracks closing since 2001 and only 19 dog tracks remaining in just six states. In the last 15 years, the total amount gambled on greyhound racing nationwide has declined by 70 percent.

Denise McFadden/GREY2K USA

Despite these obvious trends, some politicians are clinging to their greyhounds and gambling cheat sheets. They are working hard to keep this cruel sport on life support, even when consumers and taxpayers are saying they’ve had enough.

The West Virginia legislature passed a bill this year to eliminate state funding to subsidize dog racing in the state, but Gov. Jim Justice vetoed the measure as a give-away to the greyhound breeding industry. Florida, home to about two-thirds of the nation’s dog tracks, still forces casinos to have live dog races, and legislation to remove this government mandate failed again this year, because of the dizzying complexity of Florida gambling politics.

And now Kansas has taken a step backwards and made a bad bet to bring back greyhound racing, eight years after the last tracks closed in the state. Although legislation to prop up dog racing through a slot subsidy scheme was seemingly dead for the year, a conference committee yesterday resuscitated it by gutting and stuffing it into an unrelated bill. This type of sneaky, backdoor maneuvering, where the public isn’t allowed to weigh in on the issue, is a way for politicians to circumvent the normal checks and balances in the legislative process.

Racing proved to be a bad experiment for Kansas, and in 2008, with no public support and a 95 percent decline in gambling, the facilities shut down. Why would Kansas lawmakers spend their political capital trying to bring back an activity that consumers and the free market don’t want? Kansas currently operates no race tracks, and Kansans do not support dog racing. This bill caters to the gambling industry with no regard for animal welfare.

This unsporting activity leads to cruelty and neglect of greyhounds. These dogs endure lives of confinement, kept in small cages barely large enough for them to stand up or turn around for long hours each day. Public and private agencies will be forced to absorb the costs of investigating related cruelty complaints, taking in dogs with injuries and illness for treatment, rescue and adoption, and picking up dead discarded bodies of dogs dumped when the racing industry is done with them. In the last six-month season of racing in Kansas, 80 dogs suffered broken legs and backs and other injures. A total of 19 dogs were killed.

The racing industry conducts extensive breeding of dogs, resulting in an annual surplus numbering in the thousands, many of whom will end up being destroyed despite the best efforts of shelters and rescue groups. What’s more, even when they are made available for adoption, they clog the adoption pipeline, making it more difficult for other dogs to find lifelong homes. Since 2008, the year that dog racing ended in Kansas, more than 12,000 greyhound injuries were reported in other states, including broken backs and legs, spinal cord paralysis, and death by cardiac arrest. Now is not the time to bring back this cruelty to the Sunflower State.

Each Kansas citizen now has an opportunity to voice their disgust with this action, but they must weigh in urgently. Contact your state legislators now and ask them to oppose greyhound racing and House Bill 2386. It’s clear the citizens of this state no longer see the entertainment value in subjecting dogs to run for their lives. The clock is ticking and the lives of thousands of greyhounds are hanging in the balance.

Greyhound racing is archaic and exploitive, and there is no place for it in the humane economy. In fact, a dog dies every three days on a Florida track. Racing greyhounds endure lives of confinement, are fed 4D meat (the Ds represent dying, diseased, disabled, and dead to describe the source of meat fed to these animals), and suffer injuries and sometimes death. As a humane movement, we must keep pushing to improve the lives of dogs, and we are making progress.

For example, the Florida regulatory agency is in the process of creating rules that will require tracks to report greyhound injuries to the state. Last year the humane community prevailed and passed a greyhound protection ordinance in Seminole County requiring disposition reporting, injury reporting, and routine inspections of greyhound kennels. This year a bill that would prohibit the use of anabolic steroids passed the Florida House with bipartisan support and came close to passing the Senate. We will keep pushing to save dogs from cruelty and remove the antiquated government mandate that requires tracks to hold a certain number of live races in order to operate their profitable poker rooms.